1. What do “millions and millions of dollars lost on green politically connected companies” have to do with Chris Collins’ refusal to spend economic stimulus money?

2. Mark wasn’t hiding anything. He doesn’t have a requirement to disclose anything to you except the amount of money he’s raised, and from whom (assuming each such contribution was $100 or more). So, just because Tom Precious is irked, doesn’t mean anything improper happened.

By lack of self awareness, are you really saying Collins doesn’t own small businesses?

If the Obama administration is a reliable source of business info, the definition of small business is any having fewer than 500 employees. (to see that, click FAQ #1 in this SBA.gov web page)

When I’ve driven past Collins-owned ZeptoMetrix near the BNMC on Main St., it’s never looked like a big enough building for anywhere near 500 people. From the size, I might guess a few dozen at most. It’s in the range of 10 to 25 employees according to the spoke.com directory. Having 25 employees is far below 500.

And according to this, Volland Electric Equipment Co., also owned by Collins, has between 50 and 100 employees. That’s also much less than 500. Then this other one, a machinery company – which I’d never heard of but Google easily found – is also owned by Collins and has 30 employees – all according to that Business First article.

So there’s three businesses he owns, each easily within Obama’s definition of small. Even if higher estimates of those are summed, 25 + 100 + 30 would be 155 employees. That’s still far under half of Obama’s 500-employee definition of a small business.

Or are you saying that 500 number is something wrong that Obama inherited from Bush, but he and Hochul just haven’t had time to fix yet?

Yes, Chris Collins’ roster of companies that he’s taken over counts as a “small business” because when you drove by ZeptoMatrix, it didn’t look that big.

I don’t see why I’m beholden to the SBA’s (or, as you put it, the Obama Administration’s) definition of a “small business”.

Tell me, if Collins is such a small fry when it comes to being a businessman, how/why on Earth did we rely on his “business” acumen to run a billion-dollar county with thousands of employees? One would almost say that his mom ‘n pop holding company left him wildly unqualified to run that entity “like a business”.

By the way, I reject the notion that Chris Collins only owns three businesses. There’s no proof of that – only proof that three is the best number you were able to Google. His own Wikipedia page reveals that between 1997 – 2008, he bought out 20 businesses (I don’t know how many employees any of them had) and folded them under 7 companies listed there.

For the last eight years, Collins has managed and is the sole investor of Cobblestone Enterprises LLC, a merchant bank that is focused on investing in local manufacturing companies. Over the years, Cobblestone Enterprises has invested in management buyouts and purchases of financially distressed companies that have sustainable market niches. Since 1998, Cobblestone has invested in over 20 acquisitions that currently operate as ten separate platform companies. These companies currently have over 600 employees, including 500 in Western New York, with annual sales in excess of $80 million.

At Nuttall Gear, Collins emphasized a Total Quality Management program which resulted in the company being recognized as one of the Top 100 Private Companies in Western New York from 1987 to 1994 and one of the Future 50 companies in Western New York in 1995. It also received the Western Region Small Business Showcase Award for Manufacturing from NY State Empire State Development in 1996.

President and CEO of Nuttall Gear until 1997, Collins sold the business to Constellation Capital Partners, a financial holding company in Richmond, VA. After the sale, Collins stayed on as President where he oversaw an aggressive growth strategy leading to the purchase of Trenton, New Jersey based Delroyd Worm Gear which was moved to the Niagara Falls plant.

Collins began his professional career with Westinghouse Electric in 1972 spending eleven years with the company in various positions of ever increasing responsibility including Sales Engineer, Market Research Analyst, Manager of Market Planning, and, ultimately, Manager of the Westinghouse Gear Division.

Collins received a BS degree in Mechanical Engineering from NC State University in 1972 and an MBA from the University of Alabama in 1975.

well, he COULD have mentioned he also was the Erie County, NY County Executive. Probably SHOULD have. But he IS a small businessman. Chris’ main affliction is too many people want to kick him around. and everyone seems to enjoy it. Not that he hasn’t asked for a lot of it. When I was in high school I used to feel sorry for the kid who got knocked around all the time, and never fed into it.